Armenia Must Adopt Anti-SLAPP Legislation – Armenia’s Ombudsman

ArmInfo. Armenia must adopt anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) legislation and develop appropriate protection mechanisms. Armenia’s Ombudsperson Anahit Manasyan stated this while speaking as a panelist at the high-level event <Human Rights-Based Action for Biodiversity: Opportunities and Challenges>, held as part of COP17.

She placed particular emphasis on the need to create protection mechanisms against strategic lawsuits aimed at restricting public participation.

<For the effective protection of human rights, it is important that people’s needs, rights and legitimate interests be taken into account when decisions are made. When developing and implementing environmental policy, it is also necessary to ensure public participation, access to information and the availability of effective protection mechanisms>, Manasyan noted.

According to her, ensuring public participation in addressing environmental issues implies not only access to information, but also the opportunity to hear people’s views and proposals and duly take them into account when making decisions. <Various problems still remain in this area>, the Ombudsperson said.

The high-level dialogue was also attended by Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Robert Abisoghomonyan, Panama’s Minister of the Environment Juan Carlos Navarro, UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment Astrid Puentes Riaño, as well as Sefa Tauli, Co-Chair for Policy of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network.

It should be noted that SLAPP stands for <strategic lawsuits against public participation>. Anti-SLAPP legislation consists of provisions designed to protect public figures, journalists and activists from lawsuits (initiated with the aim of intimidating them) and to prevent the judicial system from being used to restrict freedom of speech and public participation. Such lawsuits may be related to publications about corruption, environmental problems, the activities of companies or the actions of the authorities.